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Ohio State carries a 9-0 record in 2019 and a 34-3 mark over the past three seasons into Saturday’s game at Rutgers.
The Scarlet Knights carry an 18-game Big Ten losing streak into Saturday’s game against Ohio State.
Would you believe those numbers just scratch the surface of how big a mismatch this game is?
Usually on “OSU Matchup Thursday” we give you a glimpse of what Ohio State’s opponent that week does well — which aspect of the game an upcoming foe most excels and what the Buckeyes must do to beat it, that sort of thing.
There is no such thing this week.
Not only does Rutgers rank 75th or worse in the nation in nearly every statistical category, the Scarlet Knights rank 100th or worse in most. Apart from giving a shout out to punter Adam Korsak, who is 20th in the nation and third in the conference in average yards (44.6) per punt, there is not a single position group, category, statistic or aspect of the game we can point to and say, “Hey Buckeyes fans, watch out for this.”
Instead we’re going to look at the utter futility of the Scarlet Knights, who marked the 150th anniversary of beginning college football (along with Princeton) by becoming the first FBS program in the nation this season to fire its coach, former Ohio State assistant Chris Ash.
For instance:
- The current 18-game conference losing streak for the Scarlet Knights is the sixth-longest in league history according to sports.reference.com/cfb research. Assuming OSU wins on Saturday it will be tied for the third longest streak in league history, and another 0-9 league campaign would leave Rutgers alone in second place with a 21-game skid (admittedly still a ways behind Northwestern’s 38-game B1G losing streak from 1978-82).
- Not only have there been just five longer conference losing streaks in Big Ten history, but among all Power 5 conferences there have only been 17 longer skids in league games — though it should be noted that Arkansas and its current 17-game SEC losing streak is right on Rutgers’ tail.
- Rutgers has been held to 1o or fewer points scored in nine consecutive Big Ten games dating to last season. The last team to go through such a streak in B1G play? It was well before anybody thought to use B1G as an abbreviation: Illinois in 1960-62.
- The Scarlet Knights have been held to 17 or fewer points in 18 consecutive B1G games dating to 2017 (representing every game in their current conference skid). The last team league to go through such a drought was Iowa, which went 20 in a row without scoring more than 17 against a Big Ten foe from 1941-45 — at that time, it wasn’t even the Big Ten because there were only nine members.
The Scarlet Knights have allowed 245 points allowed in 6 B1G games (40.8 ppg), which is bad — but only moderately bad by 2019 defensive standards. It’s not even worst in the Big Ten because Maryland (303 points allowed in 7 Big Ten games) has a poorer average on defense at 43.3 ppg.
But on offense? Egad. Rutgers is averaging 4 points scored per game in 2019 against conference foes with just 24 points in 6 games. That’s leather-helmet era stuff.
So what should Ohio State fans watch out for in this matchup on Saturday? To see how fast the second-stringers get in the game. Last week against Maryland, with the Buckeyes crushing the Terrapins, OSU coach Ryan Day had just about the entire second string on the field to start the second half.
And that’s a 3-7 Maryland team which blasted Rutgers 48-7 in early October.
That is how futile Rutgers football is right now.
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a writer and editor for saturdaytradition.com and saturdaydownsouth.com.